Well, the DOMS has faded and it seems quite weird I am now on the other side of what has been my main triathlon focus this year. I had entered IM Wales a year ago and was alternately thrilled and intimidated by the event/distance/hills! Training overall has been reasonable this year, I have a very longstanding Achilles heel problem which has at last been much more manageable and in mid June I was able to do 70.3 Staffs which went really well and was a real confidence boost on the way to Wales.

However the last 2 or 3 weeks of prep were a bit more difficult than I had hoped due to busyness at work and also a streaming taper cold with an odd throat clearing huffing thing. I tried to remember that no-one ever thinks their prep is perfect and now was the best time of all to get it out of the way!

Tenby, in South West Wales is a loonngggg way, but I loved driving down early on Thurday, and I arrived with plenty of time to recce of the first loop of the bike course. I had spent quite a bit of time beforehand looking at maps and a YouTube video recce but honestly, as soon as I got to the first hill out of Tenby I quickly realised I had underestimated the hilliness of the course – the video flattened everything out and the perception of elevation was significantly lost. I met up with my friend Nathalie, also from Glasgow, who had chatted me up to this whole adventure, and we registered and checked out various key locations. I was staying right at the top of the zig zag bath down to the beach, having got lucky with my accommodation – at the time of booking I didn’t realise what a plum location it was. I’d wanted to stay in Tenby itself to make the Sunday morning logistics easier, especially as I was on my own.

The following morning, on Friday, we had a delicious 7am swim. The water was so warm and clear and lovely. Tenby is so picturesque, the perfect perfect setting for a swim. We attended race briefing and then set out to recce the 2^nd loop, the one we would be doing twice in the event. After my recce the previous day I was now seriously thinking maybe a road bike would have been better, as I was now not only worried about going UP the hills, but worried about coming DOWN them on the TT bike!

And so to the morning of the event – I woke at 3:30am, before the alarm and decided just to get on with getting down to Transition for 5am, which was earlier than I had planned, but I am so glad I did, as the timing in the end worked beautifully. I had worried about getting really cold prior to the start at 7am, but somehow the 2 hours flew past and there I was at the iconic swim start, ready to go. I had worried (see the theme??) about misting up my goggles with the emotion of the Welsh National Anthem, as usually it doesn’t take much to set me off, but I felt happy and calm and excited and ready for it all.

The swim was an absolute delight, 2 laps around a sheltered bay and I made the rookie mistake of not sighting enough on the first leg and probably could have taken a more direct line. There had been lots of chat on various FB pages about jellyfish but I only saw 2 far far below me. Was really happy with my 1:11 time.

T1 straightforward and onto the bike. A beautiful scenic course, 6:40hrs just totally flashed past. I had realised on the recce that my projected/planned time was quite optimistic but I concentrated on riding to my plan and the downhills were much less scary than they had seemed driving in the car! The recce was totally worth it, as I was able to commit to the downhill speed a lot more than others around me, although then they would power up hills and catch me up. I was surprised at the amount of powering/ muscling up hills people were doing, and I was so glad I had changed my gear ratios on my bike with this event in mind. As others have written, the level and depth and enthusiasm of the supporter around the route is PHENOMENAL!

And then to the run. I felt quite good getting off the bike, but quickly realised I really wasn’t and felt quite nauseated dispite having planned nutrition quite carefully. I think I just hadn’t done enough really long practice rides with runs after to get this bit right. I had drunk more isotonic bottles picked up from the aid stations than I had planned, as I had felt thirstier on the bike than I anticipated. The run is a 4 loop course and was much much hillier than anything I had done in training. The first run loop was horrible, but after that things improved although I had quickly abandoned thoughts of trying to run though aid stations and soon was walking up the hills and through the aid stations taking a cup each of water, enervit and coke each time, and there were 4 stations around the 10k loop. On the positive side I had no blisters, no Ach T trouble, no hammy trouble, no cramps  muscle or gastro issues, no chafe. All things I had worried about. The crowd was great at ‘Come on girl, you’ve got this’ which by now I really needed, and I even got a hand of encouragement from Lucy Gossage! I am a little disappointed the run didn’t come together more as run training has been going well for me but overall, but as back in May I was seriously looking at deferral options due to my Ach T probs I am so grateful I even got to the event, let alone be run/walking reasonably pain free during and afterwards (apart from the ferocious DOMS from all the downhill running!)! I had a tech fail (battery flat) with my watch for the run, and maybe that was just as well, as in the end I enjoyed the run probably more for not knowing exactly how slow I was going!  I saw Nathalie a couple of times, smiling and waving. The best lap of all was the last lap – felt I was running better, but maybe that’s just because more people around me were walking by then! Like the bike, it seemed to flash past and I lost track of time, looking back there’s a really weird dissociative thing going on,  and I marvel at how on earth I ever did a marathon after all that cycling and swimming!!

So – a wonderful weekend, Tenby is fantastic and I am bitten by the bug and am signed up for next year already! Thankyou to my training buddies, Lara, Nathalie, Sarah D, and John Dargie for training advice and support and Mharie Friel at the Stride Clinic.